Imperial Power and Local Autonomy in Greek Garrison Communities: The Phrourarchia and the Polis (original) (raw)

Ryan M. Horne: "Imperial Power and Local Autonomy in Greek Garrison Communities: The Phrourarchia and the Polis." (Under the direction of Richard Talbert) From controlling cities within the Athenian Empire in the 5 th century BCE to maintaining isolated outposts on the border of the Parthian Empire in the 2 nd century CE, the institution of the phrourarchia was a critical component of Greek civic and military identity. Despite its longevity and importance to the Greek world, the office has long been overlooked in scholarship. The only broad overview remains a brief article in the Realencyclopädie der classischen Altertumswissenschaft (1941), while subsequent work has largely viewed the office as an isolated or regional phenomenon without considering its broader social or historical role. There has yet to appear a comprehensive investigation of the phrourarchia and its effect upon political and social life. My investigation addresses this deficiency. Focusing on the interplay of imperial power and civic identity, I argue that imperial powers used the phrourarchia to control local populations through ambiguous civic and military authority. Conversely, I show that a phrourarchia employed by smaller polities had clear, highly regulated legal and social constraints on its jurisdiction, remaining subordinate to local laws. I then examine the numerous strategies deployed by cities to navigate the complexities of the phrourarchia. In addition to the chapters of text, these findings are presented in a web-GIS application that for the first time places the phrourarchia within a broad geographic and temporal context.

Military Organization and One-Man Rule in the Greek Polis

This essay discusses the implicit tension between the requirements of military organization and the political and legal ideals of the polis. On the one hand, there was a need to centralize military command in one person and to avoid fragmentation, which would inhibit the creation and implementation of a coherent strategy and the efficient execution of orders. On the other hand, the Greek city-state wished to avoid tyranny, which placed one man above the law and posed a threat to the public good and to the rights of individuals. One of the reasons for Sparta’s military success was its solution to the problem posed by these conflicting imperatives. The essay concludes by illustrating how a single commander in the field and an elaborate command structure played a key role in the Spartan victories at Mantinea (418 BCE) and Coronea (394 BCE).

The Polis: The Greek City-State and Political Life

Past and Future, 2024

The ancient Greek polis was much more than a central city controlling adjacent hinterland. It was a way of life with strong face-to-face interactions among its members, along with high levels of engagement by citizens across military, political, religious and cultural affairs. As such, it set the preconditions that allowed some of these states to evolve into democracies with a widening segment of the male population gaining more political rights. In Athens, in particular, this included engagement in political deliberation, jury duty and office-holding, as well as mass participation in festivals, sporting and theatrical events. However, the ancient city-state was never fully inclusive, and tensions between aristocratic and democratic forces often led to civil conflict and even civil war. Nonetheless, the modern understanding of political participation and citizenship had its first and most direct iteration in these early Greek city-states, which were unique experiments with enduring legacies.

Citizenships and Jurisdictions: The Greek City Perspective

M. Lavan and C. Ando (eds.), Roman and Local Citizenship in the Long Second Century CE, 2021

This chapter explores the legal dimension of the local citizenships of Greek poleis in the ‘long second century’. After discussion of methodological issues, it offers a detailed case-study of Parthicopolis in Macedonia which provides our most detailed evidence for the role of citizenship in a non-privileged civic community (especially interesting as it was a new foundation in this period). This is followed by discussion of citizenships in privileged ‘free’ cities, with particular attention to our best attested case of Aphrodisias in Caria and to the role of multiple citizenships. The final section explores evidence for local substantive law in this period and the extent to which it was connected to civic status; significant evidence of the recently published decree of Tralles on public morals shows the competing principle of territoriality at work. The citizenship principle in jurisdiction and application of substantive rules remained strong in Greek cities in this period but existed in constant competition and negotiation with the claims of the territorial principle. The tension between the two is best understood in terms of what legal anthropologist Lauren Benton has termed ‘jurisdictional politics’.

A most dangerous place : finding the non-combatant within the Greek polis

2020

This thesis demonstrates the existence of rules concerning noncombatancy (legal inviolability in interstate conflict) within ancient Greek international law. By examining three defined groups-kērukes (heralds), presbeis (ambassadors), and proxenoi-their legal inviolability in warfare is used to illustrate that the Greek poleis possessed a widely agreed cultural legal standard of noncombatancy for each of these groups under certain contexts and circumstances. This standard naturally varied for each group. The contexts of each group's inviolability are brought out in individual chapters, which explores the idea and concept of their noncombatancy over the longue durée from the eighth to the first century BC. Each group's inviolability is examined in further detail and cross-compared within the final discussion chapter to examine the nature of noncombatancy as a legal idea in Greek interstate conflict. This thesis also discusses the status of the larger group of civilians (incapacitated or elderly men, women and children) that resided within poleis, contrasting them with the legal protections afforded to the case-study groups. The conclusion from this examination is that this wider group of civilians did not possesses any customary or positive legal protection during warfare, thus relying on spatial asylia (the inviolability of a certain location) if they wished to have any protection. This thesis began as an idea over five years ago. Graham Shipley, my primary supervisor, listened intently and helped shape that simple idea into this thesis. Without Graham's patience, guidance and countless hours of correspondence my work would not be at the standard it is today. Thank you for everything, Graham. You never stopped caring. My secondary supervisor, Stephen Hodkinson, has been supportive throughout, and with his keen eye has spotted more mistakes than I could have. I am grateful to know someone as kind as you. I owe thanks to both of my viva examiners, Jane Masséglia (Leicester) and Polly Low (Durham), who both were extremely supportive of my research and whose comments and suggestions have improved the thesis significantly. Thank you both. Numerous lecturers (past and present), peers and friends within the School of Archaeology and Ancient History have helped me bring this thesis to fruition. I owe thanks to Jo Appleby;

Polis and Oikos: the Art of Politics in the Classical Greek City-State

European Legacy 25(4), 2020

The Greek city-state has traditionally been viewed as an entity that was divided into two distinct spheres (oikos and polis) and governed by two distinct arts (oikonomia and politikê technê). The aim of this article is to show that this image of the Greek city-state is not very accurate. The relationship between the oikos and the polis was not exclusive in classical poleis. Particularly in Athens during the democratic period, the polis was depicted as a family writ large, and to the extent that oikos was seen as an entity of its own, it was a part of the polis, not excluded from or opposed to it. My aim is to show that the art of the household and the art of politics were not distinct arts as has been claimed in modern political theory. Furthermore, although the collapse of the classical city-state during the Hellenistic era entailed a privatization of the household, it was not until modern times, from the late eighteenth century onwards—when the concept of the natural right to life and property became firmly established in juridical and political discourses—that the private sphere attained genuine autonomy.

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Blok, J. (2016) ‘INTER-CITY RELATIONSHIPS IN ANCIENT GREECE - Mack (W.) Proxeny and Polis. Institutional Networks in the Ancient Greek World. Pp. xx + 410, figs, ills, maps. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015. Cased, £90, US$165. ISBN: 978-0-19-871386-9.’, The Classical Review, , pp. 1–3. doi: